Falling Forward
From a terrible accident that almost took her life, Madeleine Riehl shares about seizing the day, about gratitude and how one defining moment led to 12 months of rehab, meeting her husband, and stepping out to start her own business.
Published 03 March 2023
Written by Madeleine Riehl & Sam Kirby
Photography by Kali Brumpton
It was a summer afternoon in February 2016, and I had just returned from an interstate work trip.
“Want to come trial ride some horses this afternoon?”
It was a spontaneous question asked during work, and an emphatically answered ‘Yes’ that followed as I finished off my tasks for the afternoon and drove 25 minutes north of Toowoomba to Athol, where Sara and I saddled up the two horses.
Growing up on 5,000 acres near Killarney, I had always loved the country and everything rural (I even released a country music album as a teen *don’t ask*), and I had been around horses since I was 3, so a love for riding was always a significant part of my life.
Perhaps had I known what was going to happen that day or the series of sliding-doors moments that would conspire… I would have just stayed in the office, getting ahead on projects before heading home with all the carefree enthusiasm of a then 20-year-old.
…But I’ve always loved horses and was excited to be back in the saddle after having been away, so I borrowed a pair of not-quite-fitting riding boots, chose the older, more placid looking “Coolio” (that should have served as forewarning enough) and saddled-up, spending the next few hours navigating the unknown paddocks and putting the horses through their paces, before gradually turning for home.
The first anyone knew something was wrong was when Coolio returned to the stables riderless. Sara had been riding ahead opening the gates, while I had been following along closing them, and she had been waiting for me there. Unbeknown to her, I was lying on my side in the grass just out of sight after Coolio had spooked, reared and then shied from underneath me. As I attempted to bail off to the side, my shoes had caught awkwardly in the stirrups throwing me to the ground; I was winded and was sure I had broken a rib.
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Little did Maddie know that within half an hour she would be rushed to hospital for life-saving surgery, was bleeding out internally with severe organ damage, and had broken her back in two places.
Maddie would wake up in ICU after having been in a coma, six blood transfusions later, missing her spleen, with a damaged left lung and two fractures in her back. What would follow would be weeks in hospital and the start of an intense rehabilitation journey and extensive time off work.
—
I had to learn how to walk again, how to breathe properly, how to shower myself, and how to now live a life without a spleen. . . it was a huge adjustment.
Mentally, it was tough, going from being this fit and able and independent and driven person to all of that being stripped away in an instance - having to rely on others for even the most basic day-to-day tasks that we take for granted, it felt like somehow life had taken a wrong turn and spun off its axis. I was humbled and powerless, and there was no way to “fix it”.
And yet, as Maddie retells her story, holding her newly born daughter Mackenzie in her arms, there isn’t regret or disappointment, only hope and gratitude.
There were definitely times when I wanted to lay there and feel sorry for myself (surely, I was allowed that right) - but I also remember the moments when this internal conflict would rise up inside; the accident wasn’t something I’d asked for, but it wasn’t something I could undo, so I could either stay stuck in that moment, or I could be thankful and move forward, learning what life now looks like post-accident. Was there anything to lose?
I was determined that I wasn’t just going to be ‘the girl who fell off a horse’. This might be a defining moment, but it would just be one of many, across a lifetime of defining moments, and that rather than something that was happening to me, I could choose how to embrace it as part of my story and move forward. I think out of that determination came this real drive to live life fully.
In many ways I also realize just how fortunate I am, things could have gone so differently in that moment, and for so many people it does. A lot of things went wrong, but a lot of things also went right for me to survive that day. I know it’s a miracle that I am here today. I also know that the kind of experiences I had aren’t different to what some people go through on a daily basis, with a whole lot more bravery and probably grace than I did. For me, it was a season, but for others they face these kinds of struggles their entire lives.
Seven years on, life still has its adjustments, but Maddie also shares about the good that has also come out of it.
Today I have this incredible family, an amazing husband Greg, beautiful daughter Mackenzie, fur babies, and we have the joy of owning our own businesses.
When the accident happened, Greg and I had known each other for about two weeks. Whilst I was lying in the hospital undergoing life-saving surgery, the hospital was going through my phone trying to contact my next of kin without success. . . . the only person they were able to get reach was this guy named ‘Greg’ who I’d been messaging a few days earlier, we’d been on two dates! Waking up from a coma a day later, there was Greg, sitting beside the hospital bed, meeting my parents for the very first time. Out of shock and terror and probably a fair amount of morphine pumping through my body, I promptly threw up. . . (talk about a wild third date).
The accident, in a strange way, was the catalyst for stepping out and starting my own business Hey Marketing. I had always been creative and passionate about art and design, and business; I had been working in agricultural marketing for a number of years, but after the accident, a lot of things changed. My perspective on how short life is changed, sounds corny, but it’s true. If you want to do something, put your head and your heart into it and make it happen (get ready to cringe); life’s too short.
The accident really matured me, and I noticed that I started to get super focused on what mattered to me in life. It had been so easy to let the fear of taking a risk keep me from moving forward, ‘what will people think of me’, ‘what if it doesn’t work’, but suddenly none of that mattered quite as much anymore.
I still pinch myself that I get to do what I do – that working in my passion, being creative and leading an incredible team of creatives is my job. Hey Marketing celebrates its 2nd year of operation this year, and we now have an incredible team of 7 and an amazing community of clients locally, interstate and internationally. I truly believe our success comes from being a people-focused business and that we’re personally invested in the success of our clients, our team and our campaigns.
Personally, both Greg and I are a lot more purposeful in life now. We’re both incredibly driven people, but it’s possibly the greatest lesson we learnt; life can move past so quickly, and things can change in an instance that it’s important to savour the moments – we don’t rush through life in quite the same way anymore. We’re intentional to spend time with others and to stop and be thankful for the wins. We’re also intentional to stop, talk and process the losses.
It’s ironic that out of this accident would come the dreams and plans that I wanted for my life. What it brought was that awareness that life is fleeting and fragile and that – as cliched as it sounds – we need to seize the day. After all, what have you got to lose?
Oh, and as Maddi finally adds: “I still love horses, and I still love riding. It took a long time to get back on the horse - literally - but it should always be a non-negotiable to be fearful of stepping out and doing something you love.
@maddieriehl
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